How To: Argue Against Vegetarians

Never Lose An Argument With A Vegetarian Again

Nearly every meat-eater has an unfortunate encounter with a righteous vegetarian at some point. Perhaps it’s just moments before you were ready to dig into a sirloin steak, or when you were browsing the meat aisle price-checking lamb shanks. Regardless of the location, there’s a good chance you were forced to endure a long-winded treatise about animal suffering that compared your own dietary habits to cannibalism. Luckily for you, you’ll never have to sit idly by while your diet is questioned again. This article will arm you with a series of well-informed arguments that will allow you to defend your dietary choices in a debate with a willing partner.

The health argument

Many vegetarians argue that their lifestyle makes them healthier than those who eat meat. Although we certainly won’t discredit the many benefits of a vegetarian diet, there’s reason to believe that a well-balanced omnivorous diet is a far healthier choice. Studies have repeatedly shown that vegetarians who fail to supplement their diets with Vitamin D, B12 and iron are prone to becoming dangerously anemic. Vegetarians also typically miss out on omega-3 fatty acids. These unsaturated acids have been proved to slow the progression of atherosclerosis, reduce triglyceride levels, act as anti-inflammatory agents, and potentially help with depression and some personality disorders.

Researchers at Oxford University recently followed 35,000 individuals aged 20 to 89 for a period of five years and discovered that vegans are 30% more likely to break a bone than their vegetarian and flesh-eating peers. A subsequent study conducted by Sydney’s Garvan Institute for Medical Research found that vegetarians had bones 5% less dense than meat-eaters. This can be attributed to the fact that many vegetarians and vegans consume very little calcium due to the limitations of their diet.

The moral argument

Many vegetarians argue that god’s creatures shouldn’t be sacrificed simply to appease our craving for a thick, juicy rib eye. While there may be some merit to their arguments, their rationale also reeks of hypocrisy. Although vegetarians openly decry the slaughter of animals, they think nothing of tearing carrots and spuds out of the earth or of sticking a zucchini into a high-speed blender. Like it or not, plants are also living organisms that respond to stimuli like light, gravity and touch. In fact, some groups even believe plants can feel pain. Take the Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology, for instance. This Swiss group recently came out in defense of our leafy green friends in a report on “the dignity of the creature in the plant world.” They argued that plants deserve respect and that killing them arbitrarily is morally wrong.